Blog posting - OWF

 Hi blog!

In class we had to do the "One Word Film" project. This was done in groups of two, where each pair had an assigned word and were asked to come up with a 1- 1 1/2 min film. The next step was to create a brainstorming sheet to develop a shot list and start considering possible editing techniques. Before shooting the footage, a storyboard was needed to illustrate your pre-planning of the sequencing/editing of the shots. Then both members could begin filming the shots without audio. Finally, both members needed to edit the clips, put together the final product, and submit it. 

In my personal experience, my partner and I got assigned the word "Tolerance". After we knew our word, we immediately began thinking what our story was going to be about, and how we were going to communicate the word tolerance through it. As we're thinking we came up with the idea of making our film about a girl who doesn't like when people smoke and she's trying to spread the message that smoking is not good by putting up a poster that says "No Smoking". She's feels proud and happy of this poster. Then, she goes to sit down in a public table, where this other girl sits down too. As they're both sat down the second girl pulls out a cigarette and starts smoking. The main character feels uncomfortable and upset, but instead of following her nature and speaking out, she stays quiet, sighs, and leaves. Tolerating not agreeing with the other girl's actions. After coming up with the story we got a brainstorming sheet which had 15 rectangles to illustrate the types of shots that will be used. We drew, labeled, and saw how it was looking all together. Additionally, we had to make storyboard where we wrote down the 15 most important shots and scenes of our story. This helped me because it gave me a visual organization by breaking down scenes and allowing me to define the key moments in the story. Once we finished filming, I used iMovie to add all the clips together and add transitions to reach a smooth and visually pleasing product.

This is what the 1st page of the brainstorming sheet looks like.

For this project I had the role of the main character and I had to express myself in a way that the viewers could tell what word we were assigned. This was not as easy as you would think because there was no dialogue or sound permitted, so only physical expressions were used. That being said, I think I did a pretty good job on the "acting" part. Now, moving onto the process of making the story,  I believe we could've done a better job. The story itself is fine, but the shots and editing could've used more effort. After looking back at it, we covered all requirements, made the story flow, and used variety of shots, angles, and camera movements, but I did notice that we should've added more composition and movement to have a wide range of perspectives of the story and demonstrate the two characters' relationship more clearly. Also, when editing I should've used more transitions and effects to make the film more visually pleasing. 

OWF_Munoz